Overview
- Antunes is recuperating at home following a successful kidney transplant on December 22, 2025, with the organ donated by his wife, Cristiana Britto.
- He describes a profound emotional and spiritual change after surgery, expressing gratitude and a renewed outlook on daily life.
- The actor balanced 2024 filming of the Renascer remake with hemodialysis sessions as his kidney function declined.
- His health history includes discovering he had one kidney in his 30s, a 2015 chronic kidney disease diagnosis, and a 2018 pancreatic cancer surgery that coincided with his first dialysis.
- Brazil has about 42,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant, most organs come from deceased donors, and experts note living-donor procedures are increasingly feasible with modern immunosuppression.